Baptism is the ritual that marks our new identity in Jesus. . . . When baptism is enacted in faith, the spirit of God performs, ascribes, and accomplishes the very meaning of baptism—a forgiveness of our old identity is made real, and a new identity with Jesus is actualized.
-Robert E. Webber, The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2006), 152.